Cognitive Components of Regularity Processing in the Auditory Domain

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 3; no. 7; p. e2650
• Main Authors: Koelsch, Stefan, Sammler, Daniela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 09.07.2008; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Acoustics; Adult; Auditory Cortex - physiology; Auditory Perception - physiology; Brain; Brain Mapping; Brain research; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Commonality; EEG; Electroencephalography; Event-related potentials; Evoked Potentials, Auditory - physiology; Female; Frequency; Humans; Information processing; Irregularities; Language; Latency; Male; Memory; Music; Neuroscience/Cognitive Neuroscience; Neuroscience/Experimental Psychology; Neuroscience/Psychology; Neuroscience/Sensory Systems; Physiology; Physiology/Cognitive Neuroscience; Physiology/Sensory Systems; Pitch Discrimination - physiology; Regularity; Repetition; Semantics; Sensory integration; Studies; Syntax; Trends
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002650

Music-syntactic irregularities often co-occur with the processing of physical irregularities. In this study we constructed chord-sequences such that perceived differences in the cognitive processing between regular and irregular chords could not be due to the sensory processing of acoustic factors like pitch repetition or pitch commonality (the major component of 'sensory dissonance'). Two groups of subjects (musicians and nonmusicians) were investigated with electroencephalography (EEG). Irregular chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN) in the event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The ERAN had a latency of around 180 ms after the onset of the music-syntactically irregular chords, and had maximum amplitude values over right anterior electrode sites. Because irregular chords were hardly detectable based on acoustical factors (such as pitch repetition and sensory dissonance), this ERAN effect reflects for the most part cognitive (not sensory) components of regularity-based, music-syntactic processing. Our study represents a methodological advance compared to previous ERP-studies investigating the neural processing of music-syntactically irregular chords.